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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Haha, I can picture that too! POOF. Been there, done that to many times! Hey, guess what? Not much snow here at all. In fact, i can walk down the street and it's dry! ha ha! It sure is nice! But, just in case, we hired a snow plow for $200 for the winter. He's only had to come twice. He's loves this kind of weather too. He doesn't have to work much. So, I set here wishing I could work, and he probably sets there hoping that he can work too.

Yeah. Bob LOVES to remind me of that on a regular basis.... 50 at night... Hey Jer, 80 today! Shut up Bob! I can hear him laughing about it without seeing him cause I know him. He's giggling right now already, right Bob?

Hey David, let's you and me go down there and bunk in with Bob for a couple weeks? How's that sound? Bob's buying the beer!!!!

It's been butt cold here the last couple of days. Was snowing but now it's "snot." Barely any on the ground though. Love that part of it.

It's always great to see some of the rebuilds I have done over the years. Today I tuned a Wellington upright which our shop did in 1979. The piano is now 101 years old. Back in 2000, I put in new hammers and repinned 45 butt flanges (according to notes on my customer card record).

It still has its original strings, still holds tune well, and has been played a LOT. We did a rejuvenation of the iron-wound bass strings back in '79 and they sounded very good for another twenty years. Even the upper bridge in the bass, which is maple, has not a single crack in it! Now, the bass strings are "tubby" again, so it may be time to recommend restringing...

Or maybe that would be premature of me.

The rest of the day was spent continuing a full voicing and regulation job on a 40+ year old Baldwin L. (I had started that with a morning's work on Thursday.) It's gonna sound Gooooooood. Better finish that up tomorrow morning!

'Can't go to florida, Jerry. There's an alligator down there that eats only tooners. I have that on good authority from a native who told me all about it. Poor guy had something in this right eye. He kept looking at his friends and blinking like he was trying to work it out, but he was real sincere in spite of his suffering, so I believe him.

The small gators (6 foot and smaller) run or swim away from you....and the larger gators (up to 12 foot) lay on the bank and give you the eye as you kayak past them. Humans don't look like food on a kayak so you are relatively safe. Don't take your dog with, however. Dogs look like food to a gator.

Just wanted my PW friends to know that I "tuned" a piano that wasn't mine for the first time, today. It was a Chickering spinet that reminded me of a cross between a 70's Kimball (cheaply built) and my Lester (lots of string issues). Lots of false beats in the upper tenor. Very stiff tuning pins. The soprano tuned up really nicely, though. There were some oddities that I don't quite have the words for, but someone wadded up and stuck a felt punching inbetween F#3 and G3 (I think it was) which were wound bi-chords--effectively making them wound singles. G#3 and A3 were wire bi-chords. So, the felt punching helped the sound of the transition between F3 and A3. (I know this, because I took the punching out and tuned up the wound unisons, there, to see what they sounded like. Ick!!!) Also, there was a mini needle-nosed vice grip on the hitch pin of the F#3 wound bi-chord. Weird. I couldn't figure that one out. Ideas, please? I discovered it when I lost my wedge and took off the knee board to find my wedge. After carefully checking things out with a flashlight, I took off the vice grip to see what would happen, tuned the piano, then put it back in place, because I wasn't sure what purpose it was serving, but trusted that the man who put it there did so for a reason!... Did I leave in a sponge? A hemostat?

The customer was happy (a soprano), and I accompanied her on a couple of tunes afterwards. Fun stuff!!!

Thanks, BDB! Is two years long enough for a string to stetch, or, does it have more to do with the number of times it's tuned after it's replaced? (Serious question~~ the customer said the piano hadn't been tuned in two years. I'll have to ask her if the tech had to replace a sting at some point...)

I'm tuning nothing but presidential, chairman and high roller suites in the Venetian/Palazzo hotel for the next two weeks. Last year it was pitch raise and tune but this year the fine tune makes the job a lot easier. I've been doing 5 a day and trying to do more but I'm aurally exhausted after 5 units. Cleaning and check out the player system as well. Good money but no ambition to answer phone messages at the end of the day. Nice view of the strip from the 50th floor.

Thanks, BDB! Is two years long enough for a string to stetch, or, does it have more to do with the number of times it's tuned after it's replaced? (Serious question~~ the customer said the piano hadn't been tuned in two years. I'll have to ask her if the tech had to replace a sting at some point...)

I think it will depend on both time and how close the string was kept to pitch. If you are going by there, you could arrange to drop by and see if it has fallen, and pull it up if it has. You could also pick up a free vice grip while you are at it!

New customer for tuning a 1996 Yamaha C1, and...she wasn't home, called her and she told me where to find the key, met up with friendly dog, found piano covered in photos and knickknacks, bench had stuff on it, too. I talked to the dog and started clearing the piano. Customer arrived home.

Piano was a half step flat, give or take. Pins with barely enough torque to hold. Yanked it up and tuned. Oh, the customer said some keys were sticking so I removed 5 pens, 2 pencils (one of which managed to be resting between the capstans and parallel to the keys, eraser facing me with majority of the pencil further back from the capstans), a very large nail clipper, a piece of notepaper, one rubber band, a dime, a guitar pick, a fishing hook, part of a pen clippie-thingie, and an unidentifiable plastic part slightly smaller but shaped like a shot glass.

No more sticking keys.

I talked with the customer about the pin torque, about a humidifier/dehumidifier system, and showed her how to remove and replace the fallboard!

Hah! I got outta the house today!!!!! I went and looked at a Petrof grand about a 6'. My biggest problem???? I am constantly forgetting to take note of the model number! Serial number, I almost always get but the model I constantly forget! I'm getting OLD like BDB! hehehe!

Anyway, I am preparing an estimate for the grand on hammer filing, regulation and all of that fun stuff! Yippeeeeeeeee! I'm freeeeeeeeeeee!Well, sort of free.

What? And leave myself hanging out to dry, naked, on the PW clothesline of tuner infamy?!? Are you crazy!?!?

Actually, I thought about bringing my digital recorder with me, but I didn't want to be distracted by "thinking" about a recording while I was tuning, so I opted out this time. I wanted to focus on the task at hand. Maybe next time...

What? And leave myself hanging out to dry, naked, on the PW clothesline of tuner infamy?!? Are you crazy!?!?

Actually, I thought about bringing my digital recorder with me, but I didn't want to be distracted by "thinking" about a recording while I was tuning, so I opted out this time. I wanted to focus on the task at hand. Maybe next time...

Thanks for asking, though!

--Andy

All right, Mark R.! Different day, different piano~~AND a story!

So, my normal bread & butter business being a little slow (as it always is at this time of year), I went to the church this morning to tune the Yamaha G1 in the choir room. Bill had tuned it in the spring (I posted a recording of some hymns at the time in another thread ), and now the piano definitely needed some attention, so I thought I'd get some practice using the Accutuner on something that wasn't a spinet. I got there a little ahead of 9 o'clock, and was pretty well started when the pastor knocked on the door and greeted me with a request. "Would you like to play for a wedding today?" Mind you, I am just a guy that plays two tunes every third Sunday of the month--not really what you would call a practicing church musician. But there was a mature couple who had known each other for quite a while who had decided to tie the knot in a very small ceremony and the pastor thought it would be nice, since I was there, if I didn't mind, if I could play a few things to set the mood and mark the occasion. How could I say no? I said, "What time?" He said, "10 o'clock, in the sanctuary." So the ceremony included the couple, the pastor (officiating, of course), the church secretary and janitor (as witnesses), and me at the piano. I am so glad I went to tune that choir room piano, today! I did shed a tear, but I always cry at weddings...

At 10:20, I was back to tuning the piano in the choir room. Three hours later, Mark, I made you a recording. I had trouble getting a nice unison at D5 (I'm sure you'll notice). There are probably other things people will notice, too. I was pretty happy with it, though, on the whole. This piano actually lets you tune it. So, this sound file has: 1) the pipe organ effect (such as it is with me as the tuner), 2) Kabalevsky Prelude and Fugue Op. 61, No. 1, played a little frantically and sloppily, and 3) a snippet of the second section of the Gigue from Handel's Keyboard Suite No. 13, joined in progress by a fade-in edit, taken from practice that I recorded later in the afternoon, but included here because of all of the nice fourths and fifths. The playing of it is, yes, sloppy. But the harmony is... nice and springy! Recorded with a Tascam DP-004 digital recorder with the built-in condensor mics.

Comments welcome! Oh, also, I did solve a buzz problem--a crayon on the soundboard, hiding in the shadows under the bass strings. I'm planning on going back tomorrow morning to see if I can get the D5 to behave, and also to see if anything else sticks out at me, so if anyone has any suggestions about anything, I'm all ears! Thanks!

So there I was two days ago in a town 40 miles out and popped in to a long-time customer church to catch two pianos that are overdue for regular yearly tunings - a fairly large church for that area.

Secretary: "Have you talked with the pianist?" odd question

Me: "Yes." (I had standing orders from the last phone call to the previous musician not to worry about calling, just to "tune what needed tuning when it needed it.")

Secretary: "There is a new pianist. You will need to check with her." unknown baggage in this situation

Me: "I have been tuning here regularly since 1983. Does it matter that I speak with the pianist?" not huffily I don't think

Secretary: "Yes. You will have to speak with her about the pianos. I would think that falls to her." (secretary now appointed to gate-keeper)

Glory, hallelujah! I was sure glad that I had two to do in another church in the 40-mile away town to jump over to.

Fast forward to today. Here I was calling, writing letters, seeking to engage a contract at a church that I had already been serving for 30 years. Ah, the little things that make self-employment so sssssweeeeeet!

This will make Jurgen happy... I'm back to work again as of this past Saturday when I started tuning a whopping ONE piano!!! WOOHOOOO!!! I got up to tuning 2 pianos yesterday and today, double woo hoo. I sure am tired though. Maybe on Saturday I'll move it on up to 3 a day and see how my body reacts. It sure does feel good to be back to work again! Yippeeeeee!